


And You're Miles And Miles

by Memories_of_the_Shadows



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Closeted Character, Complete, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Emotional Constipation, F/F, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:20:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24791488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Memories_of_the_Shadows/pseuds/Memories_of_the_Shadows
Summary: When McKay needs help with emotions, there's no one better than Laura Cadman.  Who else would know better than someone who's been in his head?
Relationships: Katie Brown/Laura Cadman, Laura Cadman & Rodney McKay, Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Comments: 13
Kudos: 49





	And You're Miles And Miles

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "You Got A Friend In Me" by Randy Newman.
> 
> I do not consent to my work being hosted on any unofficial apps, especially any with ad revenue and subscription services, or any website other than ao3 unless I personally cross-posted a work.

When there’s a rapid, impatient knock on her door at 0200 hours, Laura’s not sure if she’s hoping it’s an emergency--so that there’s a _reason_ she was woken up from a dead sleep, her and her team are supposed to be on stand-down for a full lantean day after a mission--or someone that she can vent at and not feel bad.

It turns out to be neither, although yelling at McKay is pretty much both their favorite pastimes. He bustles in--with a shoulder-check worthy of a quarterback, it’s times like these that she remembers that he used to play hockey, not just watch it, they’ll watch re-runs sometimes if they get tired of yelling which isn’t often--and starts pacing around her small quarters, wringing his hands.

No yelling, no hockey, and no blowing things up, then. Laura goes to her mini-fridge to dig out Katie’s home-brew Yerba mate. The coffee plant may be a finicky son of a bitch still but holly is tough as nails and Laura’s willing to take her caffeine where she can get it.

She sits on her bed, headboard digging into her spine, and watches him pace while she sips.

“I don’t know how you can drink that,” he says, nose curling up when he finally deigns to look at her.

“I like caffeine better than I ever liked the taste of coffee. Gotta get it somehow.” She raises an eyebrow when he mutters something unkind about her education. “Don’t be a snob, Rodney, not all of use can have coffee for blood and a dozen degrees. Some of us have explosions to set.”

“You _are_ fairly decent at making things explode,” he allows, stopping for a moment to frown at her.

“That’s probably the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Laura responds, dry as a fucking desert. She cocks an eyebrow at him when he continues to frown at her.

He frowns at the wall instead, then resumes pacing. “How’s Katie?”

“Heartbroken,” Laura says rolling her eyes. “The only thing she ever wanted in life, to marry a bastard like you, and you just had to break up with her.”

McKay wrings his hands and glares at her. “Listen, I know we agreed not to talk about the _incident_ and things we may have learned and agreed to during but you’re the only one I know I can trust right now so can you drop it?” Laura sips her tea and purses her lips, both eyebrows raised until he huffs and says, “please?”

“Fine. Maybe we’ll beat some manners into you by the next century or so. Katie’s doing well. She’s been enjoying hamming up her ‘heartbreak’ for chocolate and she loves the drama of it all. It’s been nice, seeing her more--I get ‘best friend comforting her’ privileges and all I have to do when someone asks about spending so much time with her is mention braiding hair and crying and everyone scatters--but she won’t be able to milk it forever. Rodney, what’s this about?” Laura doesn’t like talking about this stuff out loud, too much risk, but she knows McKay like she knows herself. Unless he’s been snaked, the only thing she risks is eavesdroppers. And seriously if they’re eavesdropping on her at 0230 in the morning, they deserve to get something out of that.

“Okay. Yeah.” He huffs and pulls on his ring finger, delaying. “I think John might be gay? I think I might _want_ him to be gay?”

“Right. Rodney, you know those are two different things right?” She flaps a hand when he sputters. “But, y’know, congratulations on figuring out you’ve had a crush on him forever.”

“I do not have a crush!” His voice goes all high and squawky, she just has to grin.

“Whatever you say, _genius_.” Laura wonders idly if she can get away with sleeping in. Her team isn’t even supposed to do anything! Surely her body will let her sleep till noon. “I know for a fact they don’t teach getting in touch with your emotions in grad school, but maybe they save that for your third go-round.”

“Listen, what if he is? Laura, what if he wants a _relationship_?” He throws his hands in the air and continues pacing. If Laura has a hole in her floor by the end of this, she’s going to make McKay explain that to Stackhouse when she requisitions a new rug.

She’s no longer sitting upright at this point, content to just curl up with the headboard at her back on her pillows but something about what McKay just said niggles at her, makes her sit up. “Rodney, hey, hey _Rodney_ , did you have _sex_ with Colonel Sheppard?”

He glares at her. “Why else would I be here?”

“Oh my god.” Laura drags her hands over her face. “Oh my _god_. You know he’s my CO, right? You know I have to look him in the eye, right? It was hard enough when I was just wading through your fantasies, but now I have to know this too?”

“Stop being so dramatic, I’ll let you test something in the lab. This is _serious_. What if he was just being nice? I had to tell him why I broke up with Katie--I didn’t say a word about you or her, don’t look at me like that--he just looked so upset like he had _feelings_ whenever I had to mention her. And I’m a foreign civilian! Your ridiculous laws don’t matter to me. It’s just easier not to say.”

“So you told him you’re gay and he has sex with you so you think that he was just being _nice_?” Sometimes Laura wonders if McKay was always like this, or if something along the way took away his ability to relate to other people. But, then, she’s seen his memories, knows that friends for him are very few and far between.

“Isn’t that what friends do?” He looks uncharacteristically hesitant, and Laura bites back the urge to try and go hug him. He’d probably bite her arm off and it’s a byproduct of spending so much time with her Katie anyway. She’s sweet as pie, and so fucking soft, Laura sometimes wonders why she even came on the expedition. But Katie has this spine of pure diamond that shows through in the hard times, and Laura can’t forget that either.

Laura glares at him. “I wouldn’t sleep with you with a ten foot pole and _we’re_ friends. Colonel Sheppard, apparently, likes guys and probably you. Listen, Rodney, you don’t put your career on the line for just anyone. Friendship isn’t enough, not for this. If he wanted to be ‘just friends’ with you and support you like that, he’d have said ‘oh, me too,’ and then gone out and slept with a woman so he could claim hearsay if it was a trap. Maybe. He’s not a giant dick, so he might not throw you under the bus even if you did _that_ to him.”

McKay sits heavily at the end of her bed, making the mattress bounce. “It’s that serious with Katie?” She’s a little surprised by the question, McKay normally isn’t one to talk about feelings, but it’s that kind of night and she wishes she stocked beer in her mini-fridge as well as yerba mate.

“Yeah. I figure that if she ever wants to get married, I’ll resign my commission, round out my degrees and come back as a scientist.” The thought of leaving Atlantis hurts, but the thought of never getting to come back is worse.

“What if you get caught?” He sounds almost worried, and Laura knows that it’s not just for Colonel Sheppard like most people would think. McKay is a prickly bastard but he cares more about people than even _he_ knows.

“They can’t really court-martial any of us. We all know too much and if any of us were dishonourably discharged we’d never be able to come back. And the SGC wants to keep us all in one spot, less work. Less chance of leaks. So I’d be ‘gently encouraged’ to resign my commission and come back as a civilian. If I was resistant, I might end up on some nowhere, backwater planet watching people dig rocks out of the ground. If I was violent… I might end up being one of the ones digging rocks.” She shrugs. “It’s not a great system but there’s not really an alternative.”

He’s quiet for a while, and Laura wonders if he’ll leave if she falls asleep. “Will I have to put up with you in my department anytime soon?”

“Nah. Except for that testing you promised me. Katie asked you to beard for her for more reasons than just me, and I won’t get into it.” She yawns and kicks toward him. “We done? You good? I need _some_ sleep before tomorrow.”

“That’s why coffee is superior, clearly,” he says, dry, then he laughs when she makes sure her foot actually connects this time.

“Go be an emotionally-stunted, snobbish _man_ somewhere else,” she says, hugging a pillow and glaring. McKay laughs again but leaves, closing the door behind him.

Laura’s glad that’s over. But she makes a note to keep a few beers in the mini-fridge for next time as she drops off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> So, ever since I saw the episode where they end up in the same body, I've always loved the idea of their _friendship_. Like, they would know each other better than almost anyone else, and that's a very appealing idea to me? Even if they argue all the time, they're always friends in my head. And I wanted to post something for my birthday and this just so happened to be finished.
> 
> If you'd like, come visit me on [tumblr](https://sachinighte.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
